Intellectual property: Motivation to encourage youngsters to innovate

Illustrative image (Photo: Minh Son/Vietnam+)

World Intellectual Property Day (April 26) 2022 with the theme IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future aims to honour youth-led innovations and creativity.
The VietnamPlus e-newspaper reporter had an interview with Nguyen Van Bay - Deputy Director of the Department of Intellectual Property under the Ministry of Science and Technology about this issue.

- World Intellectual Property Day (April 26) 2022 with the theme IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future. As far as you are concerned, what is the community aware of in terms of intellectual property in recent times?

Nguyen Van Bay: The theme of this year's World Intellectual Property Day is very meaningful, focusing on raising awareness of all generations, especially the young. Currently, intellectual property plays an increasingly important role in the socio-economic development of each country, each activity of each business and individual.

In Vietnam in recent years, awareness about intellectual property has increased significantly. However, there are still some businesses that are not fully aware or have not acted enough on the protection and exploitation of intellectual property.
This year's theme focuses on the young generation with the aim of encouraging innovation among the younger generation. This is also an occasion to honour young people who come up with new solutions to solve life's problems. They are also the ones who create breakthrough solutions to meet the needs of society, thereby creating a better future.

- Many experts believe that intellectual property plays a role as a driving force to encourage the younger generation to be creative, but there are also some concerns that this will be a barrier to slowing down the boldness of the young generation. What do you think about this?

Nguyen Van Bay: I don't think this becomes a barrier to the innovation activities of the young generation. Regardless of any group, intellectual property is still a tool to encourage the young generation to unleash their creativity.

What we need to do is to guide and support youngsters to get early and effective access to the intellectual property system. I believe that with the inherent agility and dynamism, younger generation will easily turn intellectual property into an effective tool for breakthrough creativity.

- In recent years, the issue of forming "intellectual property culture" has been frequently mentioned. Can you explain more about the meaning and importance of this?
Nguyen Van Bay: Since the Government issued the Intellectual Property Strategy until 2030, one of the important tasks and solutions has been set forth, which is "forming an intellectual property culture in society,” this phrase appears frequently in the media.

Social networks with global coverage such as Facebook, Instagram, technology companies such as Samsung, Apple or online viewing platforms like Youtube, Netflix penetrate deeply into the Vietnamese market and come with the issue of respecting intellectual property rights.

As more and more multinational enterprises are present in Vietnam, the requirements of social consciousness and manners related to intellectual property issues are gradually becoming more urgent.

I believe that intellectual property culture can be used as a powerful tool to solve many problems in society. An IP system works effectively only when the whole society has a sense of respect and protection of intellectual property rights.

Nguyen Van Bay - Deputy Director of Intellectual Property Department. (Photo: Minh Son/Vietnam+)

- Every year, WIPO and many international organisations often continuously communicate about intellectual property and innovation strategies for sustainable development. What do we need to do to make this message spread even stronger?
Nguyen Van Bay: In the past few years, we often hear about the movement "start-up," "innovation" and the accompanying term "intellectual property."

The Vietnamese government has recently determined the policy of "using intellectual property tools as a lever to promote innovation activities, improve competitiveness, and contribute to socio-economic development." So I think we've basically seen the role of intellectual property as the engine that drives the whole machine to work. Not only "know" but then "understand" and "act."

The intellectual property system is comprehensive from establishing rights, protecting rights, and commercialising, so for each subject, each industry should approach and focus on certain aspects of the IP system.

With its function, the Intellectual Property Department has sufficient professional capacity and staff to guide and support relevant subjects to understand the regulations properly and act at the right time.

- Thank you./.